There’s an old adage - garbage in, garbage out. If you can’t verify the quality of your ingredients, you can’t verify the quality of your end product.
Manufacturers often rely on trusted suppliers to provide quality ingredients. But is trust enough? Not anymore. In today’s world of increasingly complex global supply chains, it’s okay to trust, so long as you verify. When it comes to dietary supplements, not only is verifying the quality of ingredients a good business practice, it is also a regulatory requirement.
The FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) require supplement manufacturers to qualify their suppliers and establish suitable specifications for ingredients and supplements. The lack of appropriate specifications for ingredients and supplements is frequently cited as a CGMP violation by FDA.
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) establishes science-based quality standards for dietary supplement ingredients and products, and offers supplier qualification and verification programs for the same.
Recent news stories about tainted herbal supplements have raised concerns about the quality of supplements and have made consumers wary. That’s why, now more than ever, it’s important for supplement manufacturers to ensure the quality of their products.
An article on “The Science of Ingredient Integrity” in the trade publication Nutrition Industry Executive outlines the wealth of resources USP provides to supplement industry executives looking to ensure the quality of both the ingredients they purchase and the products they deliver to consumers.
For more on USP’s verification services, visit http://www.usp.org/usp-verification-services
